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Paper short abstract:

The study examines how and who provides weather information to farmers and the changes in the role of information, actors and institutions as a result of globalization and ICT informational age.

Paper long abstract:

The provision of weather information services to farmers have become necessary due to the effects of erratic weather conditions. This has become possible as ICT and globalisation has enabled increasing number of people to gain access to information. This study examines how and who provides weather information to farmers and the changes in the role of information, actors and institutions as a result of globalization and ICT informational age. The informational governance theory is applied to understand the changes in the role of actors, information and institutions that enables the provision of weather information services for farming. Interviews was conducted with farmers and weather information producers, providers and supporting service providers. Findings of the study indicates changes in the roles of actors who produce and deliver weather information services to farmers. Increasingly, weather information sources, the information production and delivery is either at a global, national, and local level or a combination of two levels. This change process involves multiple actors at various scale and it also involves multinationals, for-profit and non-governmental organizations. Conventional state actors' role is currently being (out)played or complemented by private actors or farmer based organisations. Shifts have also taken place in the forms and mechanisms of governance since state polices and Act of Parliaments have also paved way for the sale of weather information and other agricultural information and the entrant of private actors. The study analysed the consequences of these phenomena on agricultural development.